MST3K 304 - Gamera vs Barugon
The Movie Synopsis Gamera is back, having been released from the “Plan Z” spaceship by an errant meteor. Meanwhile, three treasure hunters travel to a remote island in the South Pacific in search of what they believe to be a huge opal. They ignore the natives' warnings about the perils inherent in seeking treasure, and one of the guys schemes to let his comrades 'accidentally' die so he can have the treasure all for himself. On his voyage back home, the evil guy inadvertently exposes the opal to infrared rays, causing the 'opal' (which turns out is really a monster egg) to hatch. Just as the ship reaches port, Barugon, a lizard-dog monster, emerges and quickly grows to giant size. The monster immediately causes widespread destruction, trampling people and buildings, attacking with his battering-ram tongue - spitting frozen liquid nitrogen - and his deathly energy ray. Meanwhile, the evil guy goes on a bit a of killing spree, though almost no one notices because of all the monster-caused chaos. Gamera soon appears, attracted by the heat of Barugon's ray. Barugon freezes Gamera and resumes his spree of devastation. Meanwhile, a nice treasure hunter guy (who was left for dead) and an island native girl show up, battle the evil guy, and work with the military on ideas to destroy Barugon. They use a giant diamond from the girl’s homeland in an attempt to lure Barugon into Lake Biwa. The plan is only partially successful - Barugon is merely stunned on the lakeshore. (On the plus side, he does kill the evil dude - with his tongue!) All seems lost, until Gamera miraculously thaws. The flying turtle hero tosses Barugon into the lake, killing him. Information * Daiei Studios based their monster Barugon on rival Toho’s Baragon, which appeared in “Frankenstein Conquers the World,” released just a year earlier. The two monsters have a similar appearance and names, but they are not supposed to be the same monster. * Gamera vs. Barugon is the only Gamera movie that doesn’t feature children befriending the giant turtle. * Special effects artist Kazufumi Fujii also worked on Gamera Vs. Gaos, Gamera Vs. Guiron, and Gamera Vs. Zigra. Special effects artist Masao Yagi also worked on Gamera Vs. Gaos. In front of the camera, both Kojiro Hongo and Kyoko Enami were also in Gamera Vs. Gaos. See also Episode K04 The Episode Host Segments Prologue: The Bots continue the age-old debate: PC or Mac? Segment One (Invention Exchange): Joel presents an animatronic soda can for public service announcements, while the Mads boogie down with the Disco Cumber-Bubble-Bund (quite similar to their experiment from episode 107 - Robot Monster ) Segment Two: Joel and the Bots have a blast with the 5000-piece fightin' men & monster set! Tom goes too fast in his announcement and is muffled by Joel before he can go off the rails. Segment Three: Crow and Tom are mid-western monster women having dinner at T.G.I. Tokyo's. Segment Four: Joel talks about going to the Drive-In, identifies the "famous" faces in Gamera vs Barugon and vapor locks yet again. Segment Five: The Bots lament the lack of Gamera, Joel informs them of the behind-the-scenes books on the film, and a letter is read. Stinger: Kawajiri giggles with delight over discovering the "opal". Tom Servo's commercial And we'll be right back, right after this: Kids! Here's the greatest, the neatest, and the latest thing. 5000-piece Fightin' Men and Monster set (some pieces not included.) Astonish and baffle your friends and foes while you pulverize Japan. Here's what you get: *500 Japanese light infantry body parts (may not be missing) *36 helpless individuals *20 tanks *15 recoil-less rifles (not in the set) *24 bazooka gun runners *18 ambulance chasers *12 jet fighters (6 not included) *16 helicopter parts *200 shooting crouches *19 fighting clowns *8 deserters *6 geese-a-laying *24 Mohawk Indians *and much, much, much, much more! Act now and receive at half the extra value the mystifying monster action pack. Flame-on with Gamera (torso sold separately.) He spits real fire and causes real pain. Solid rubber Barugon comes complete with optional ram-tongue action (not responsible for nerve damage.) And amuse your friends with Topel, Meatsong, and Bart the Bat-man Belgium and dive (some parts may not exist.) Act now, act often, and snap on the entire Tokyo metropolitan area complete with buildings, bridges, and the breakaway Monte Nuclear Dam (smaller than shown.) Trample the add-on hapless citizen playset, then abhor the action with the fabulous anti-war protest pack (Senator Wellstone not included.) But that's not all. Relive your favorite Japanese movie carnage with the Lights! Gamera! Action! series. There's the gimp, the goon, the shame-filled brother, the hapless geisha, and the fall-apart voodoo Kenny. Pose in the nude with the Frisky Kitten Revue then watch the action from high atop Tokyo Tower as the twisted world you create explodes in rivers of blood and endless pain. Order today. Offer limited. Not available in Utah. Puerto Rico prices subject to herein. Please wear rubber underwear and some parts may be made of chicken. Act now! Buy bonds! That's all! MOMMY! MOMMY! Trivia * The desk on the SOL was removed in order to shoot the photos for segment 1 and again for segment 3. * The Mads' Disco Bubble Cummerbund is the exact same as Joel's Bubble Cummerbund from back in Robot Monster. Joel doesn't protest this time around about their stealing one of his inventions, though he does note that it seems rather familiar. *The "fire breathing lizard" the MADs peddled in The Mad Monster is used as part of the "Fightin' Men and Monster" commercial. * Joel imitates Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton while using an air filter for a VISOR. Frank did the same thing in Godzilla vs. Megalon. * Joel declares an official ban on the “By this time…” riff in this episode. *This episode was ranked #90 among backers of the Bring Back MST3K Kickstarter in the Top 100 Poll. Callbacks * Tom mentions Jungle Goddess as the helicopter lands. * “...A thousand wonderful hours...” (Rocketship X-M) Goofs * Crow's arm detaches during the invention exchange and Joel throws it away. Obscure References *Crow can be seen reading Byte magazine in the opening host segment. *''"Has anyone seen the mouse for my Amiga?"'' Amiga was a line of computers made by the now-defunct Commodore company, which still have a devoted following to this day despite never being as popular as PCs or Macs. *"Oh yeah, what about System Seven?" A reference to Mac OS 7. Ironically, though Crow mocks the fact it was delayed, it had been released by the time this episode first aired: it was released on May 13, 1991, and this episode first aired on June 8, 1991. *''"Shaken not stirred, please."'' -Tom Servo. Servo quotes the fictional character James Bond, who often orders a vodka martini in this manner. *''"Saigon... I can't believe I'm still in Saigon..."'' -Crow T. Robot. Crow quotes a line from Apocalypse Now. *''"Hey! Jake and Elwood!"'' -Joel. Joel mistakes two of the characters in the film for Jake and Elwood Blues from the Blues Brothers (due to their matching hats and glasses). *''"Kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit..."'' A line sung by Elmer Fudd in the 1957 cartoon What's Opera, Doc?. *''"You mean like Chuck Mangione?"'' Chuck Mangione is a flugelhorn player best known for his 1978 jazz-pop single "Feels So Good". *''"Get the KC Masterpiece sauce!"'' KC Masterpiece is a brand of barbecue sauce. *''"I can't believe Gamera ate the whole thing."'' Joel is parodying "I can't believe I ate the whole thing", a quote from a 1970s Alka-Seltzer commercial. *''"He had a contract with Wham-O."'' The Wham-O toy company is best known for manufacturing Frisbees. *''"And now, back to our film: 'Sky King: The Motion Picture'."'' A reference to the radio and TV show Sky King. *''"Come on, play it like you feel it, Mister Eddie's Father!"'' Joel is imitating Mrs. Livingston, the Japanese housekeeper from The Courtship of Eddie's Father. *''"And now, it's Pink Lady Unplugged!"'' Pink Lady was a Japanese pop music duo from the late 1970s and early '80s. They were the stars of a (very) short-lived TV variety series called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Lady_(TV_series) Pink Lady and Jef''f,] generally considered one of the worst TV shows of all time. *"Don't mention the war!"'' Servo is quoting John Cleese's'' observation about German tourists from his mid-1970s sitcom Fawlty Towers. *''"With Crutch Cargo!"'' A reference to the low-budget 1960s animated series Clutch Cargo. *''"For God's sake, don't bungle!" "In the jungle!"'' A reference to the Jethro Tull song "Bungle in the Jungle". *''"Remember to take plenty of black market dollars with you." "Make sure they have Art Linkletter's picture on them"'' Art Linkletter was a TV host who endorsed the Milton Bradley board game The Game of Life, which featured Linkletter's picture on the game's $100,000 bills for a number of years. *''"Be careful of the scorpions!" "And Whitesnake!"'' Scorpions and Whitesnake are heavy metal bands. *''"What, did somebody drop a Coke bottle all of a sudden?"'' A reference to the 1981 movie The Gods Must Be Crazy, in which a primitive African tribe is thrown into chaos as the result of a Coca-Cola bottle being dropped from an airplane. *''"I've gotta get this t-shirt back to Henry Chinaski!"'' ''Henry Chinaski is the name of Mickey Rourke's character in the movie ''Barfly. ''The character of Chinaski is a semi-autobiographical portrait of author and poet Charles Bukowski (who wrote the screenplay). *"Love is kind of crazy with a spooky little girl like her."'' Lyrics from the song 'Spooky' by The Zombies . *''"Pat Morita, Denture Wearer!"'' Actor Pat Morita is best remembered for his roles as Arnold on Happy Days and Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid movies. *''"Andolini? No, you're now Corleone."'' A reference to the movie The Godfather Part II, in which an immigration official at Ellis Island misunderstands when someone tells him a boy who has just come over from Italy is "Vito Andolini, from Corleone", and writes his name down as Vito Corleone. *''"Marion! Don't look at the light, Marion! Look away!"'' -Tom Servo. Servo references Indiana Jones' instructions to Marion Ravenwood when the Ark of the Covenant is opened from the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. *The ending host segment is a parody of Reading Rainbow hosted by LeVar Burton. Joel even puts on a visor similar to Burton's character Geordi La Forge from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Video releases *Commercially released on DVD by Shout! Factory in August 2011 as part of MST3K vs. Gamera: Volume XXI, a 5-disc set along with Gamera, Gamera vs Gaos, Gamera vs Guiron, and Gamera vs Zigra. The set went out of print in 2015. **The DVD includes the Ballyhoo Motion Pictures feature Gamera Vs. the Chiodo Brothers and a theatrical trailer. References Category:MST3K Episodes Category:Season 3 Category:Foreign Film Category:Gamera films Category:Star Trek spoofs Category:Unrated movies Category:Movies riffed multiple times